A new report from the National Low-income Housing Coalition has made a startling discovery, at least to anyone who has not tried to survive at a minimum wage job.
This map shows how many hours per week a person would have to work in order to rent a one-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30 percent of his or her take-home pay.
Photo Credit: National Low Income Housing Coalition
In the states with the lowest apartment cost, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Montana, a person would still have to work 54 hours per week to afford rent. In places like Washington D.C., Hawaii, or Maryland, a person would have to work more than 100 hours per week . . .
Photo Credit: National Low Income Housing Coalition
The report also showed that in expensive states, like Maryland or California, the renting wage can be exponentially higher than the current minimum wage. In California the minimum wage varies from $9.00-per-hour to more than $12-per-hour, but the renting wage is anywhere from $24- to $31-per-hour. (Read more from “A Full-Time Minimum Wage Job Can’t Pay Rent for an Apartment Anywhere in the U.S.” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:29:022016-04-11 11:00:32A Full-Time Minimum Wage Job Can’t Pay Rent for an Apartment Anywhere in the U.S.
In many presidential elections, conservatives have been frustrated that they get stuck with establishment Republicans such as John McCain or Mitt Romney, their votes often lost among a plethora of candidates. A group of New Hampshire conservatives has a plan to consolidate behind a constitutional conservative in advance of the pivotal first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary, coming up in February.
The group, the 603 Alliance, sees itself as a potential model for conservatives in other states that are sick of having establishment RINOs foisted upon them election after election. At a recent meeting in Littleton, New Hampshire, organizers of the 603 Alliance presented their plans to interested conservatives who share their frustration.
Before getting down to business, they psyched themselves up for the task at hand by watching clips of Ronald Reagan’s inaugural addresses. Especially inspiring were two famous lines—”government is not the solution, it is the problem,” and it is not the job of the government to make good people, but the job of the people to make a good government.
Another video clip, from the group’s foundational meeting about a month earlier, particularly resonated. It was by Trever Loudon, a New Zealander who is part of the organization. He said that if conservatives do nothing in the next 22 months, their children will live in slavery.
To prevent this, organizers presented their plan.
Another member of the steering committee, Andrew Hemingway, who was the 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate, grilled some of the conservatives at the meeting about many of the potential candidates and which ones were acceptable to them ideologically. There were many good candidates, he said. Too many, and because of that, the conservative vote would be split up and more than likely Jeb Bush would be the candidate. Governor Chris Christie would not win, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would stay in the race just long enough so that South Carolina would be out of play for a conservative candidate.
If Jeb Bush becomes the nominee, there is no way he could beat presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Hemingway said.
The primary process can be deceptive, and make it appear as if the leading candidate has more support than he really does. 603 Alliance organizers said that with so many conservative candidates, votes are spread out among them. If Bush wins with 35 percent, and several other candidates such as Cruz, Paul, Carson and Fiorina get 15, 10, 7 and 5 percent, it would appear like Bush won by a great margin when in reality the votes of the conservatives, spread among several other candidates, would outnumber his.
The 603 Alliance hopes to prevent this by getting grassroots conservatives behind a constitutional conservative several months before the election so they can campaign for the candidate and really put a serious effort behind him.
There are lots of candidates, and any one of them would be better than Bush, Hemingway and others said. The important thing will be to coalesce behind one of them. They will do this by holding a caucus on Oct. 17. It will be similar in format to the Iowa caucus. At first, activists will gather in groups supporting their candidates. The one with the fewest votes will be dropped and that candidate will have 20 minutes to join another group. In this fashion, candidates will be eliminated until one is left.
All the activists who attend the caucus will have to agree in advance to stand behind the winner, and to campaign for him in the almost two months between the end of the caucus and the New Hampshire Primary in early February.
“The cause is greater than any single candidate,” Hemingway said.
Hemingway said organizers hope at least 500 conservative activists will attend the caucus and commit to support the winning candidate. Those 500 will have a large impact on the primary, he said. Around 250,000 will vote in the Republican primary and the 500 people from the caucus will influence around 25,000, about 10 percent of those voting.
Those 25,000 could have a decisive impact on the primary, lessening Bush’s lead, or even propelling an actual conservative to victory.
The 603 Alliance will be operating in conjunction with its sister group, the Conservative Business League of New Hampshire. The CBL will be raising funds for the group and will be sponsoring candidate visits around the state. Candidates will have to meet certain basic conservative criteria. Among them will be a strong position opposing illegal immigration and amnesty, control of the borders, opposition to Common Core, support of the Second Amendment, supporting states’ rights, repealing Obamacare, repealing the PATRIOT Act, and supporting judges who believe in a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
The idea behind the 603 Alliance has attracted the attention of conservatives in other states, who see it as a model for their primaries. Organizations in Iowa and South Carolina have contacted the 603 Alliance and a member of the steering committee is traveling to Wyoming to help conservatives there.
While it is too early to tell what impact this movement will have in New Hampshire and beyond, it is heartening that conservatives are not giving up to the establishment without a fight. (See “Can True Conservatives Win in Primaries? One Group Has the Answer”, originally posted HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:28:272016-04-11 11:00:33Can True Conservatives Win in Primaries? One Group Has the Answer [+videos]
Tragedy has not just afflicted Joe Biden, it has shaped his political soul.
In the latest personal devastation, the Vice President must now endure the torment of burying a second child, after his beloved son Beau died from brain cancer Saturday night.
It’s particularly heartrending because Beau, 46, was also a victim of an earlier incident that shattered Biden’s life, a car crash at Christmas in 1972 that killed his first wife and an infant daughter and badly injured another son as well as Beau.
Stricken with grief back then, Biden contemplated vacating the Delaware Senate seat he had just won as a young rising star of the Democratic Party, but his decision to endure became the foundation on which he built his political creed and public service. In a famous photo at the time, Biden was seen being sworn into the chamber in his sons’ hospital room . . .
But in a deeper sense, his personal tribulations cemented in Biden an almost mystical reverence for family. It pulsates through his politics and is at the root of his love affair with the U.S. Senate, which sustained him when his home life was torn apart and where he served for nearly four decades. (Read more from “Tragedy Haunts Joe Biden Once Again” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:28:162016-04-11 11:00:33Tragedy Haunts Joe Biden Once Again
Photo Credit: International Business Times Harriette Thompson, 92, became the oldest woman to finish a marathon Sunday, pounding the pavement for more than seven hours in San Diego. Perhaps more remarkably, she did so after surviving cancer three times and despite a recent staph infection in one of her legs.
“I was just really thrilled that I could finish today,” she told the Associated Press after crossing the finish line at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. Thompson finished the race in 7 hours, 24 minutes and 36 seconds. She fell just short of her time last year — 7 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds — which set the record for a woman 90 or older.
Thompson, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina, has run in 17 of the last 18 Rock ‘n’ Roll marathons, each time on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She said she only runs in the San Diego race because of its dedication to the cancer foundation, the Charlotte Observer reported. Thompson lost both her parents and three brothers to cancer. Sydnor Thompson, her husband of 67 years, died in January at the age of 90 after a long battle with cancer.
Harriette Thompson said this race was her most difficult. She set aside training to care for her sick husband, and after he died earlier this year, she underwent treatment on her infected leg, she told the AP. “It’s always harder but this year has been a bad year for me,” she said. (Read more from “92-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Becomes Oldest Woman to Complete a Marathon” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:27:582016-04-11 11:00:3392-Year-Old Three-Time Cancer Survivor Becomes Oldest Woman to Complete a Marathon
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which seems to rear its ugly head any time someone mentions God, alleges that the University of Toledo head football coach Matt Campbell violated the Constitution by leading his team in a prayer before a Sept. 15, 2012 game against Bowling Green State University, according to the Toledo Blade.
To get an idea of just how ridiculous the foundation’s case is this time, it didn’t write to University of Toledo President Dr. Sharon L. Gaber until May 21, 2015, after it was contacted by an alumnus who watched a video of the prayer titled “All Access: Toledo Rockets Pre-Game” taking place on YouTube.
In the letter, the foundation claims the prayer was “a serious and flagrant violation of the First Amendment” and it is “afraid it still continues” as Campbell is still the head coach of the team . . .
On the Blade article’s comment section many fans expressed anger over the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s latest contrived controversy.
The effort to paint the nation’s police officers as uniformed crime families — led by the Obama administration, former Attorney General Eric Holder and America’s racial grievance industry– has created a “Ferguson Effect” of growing crime — and not just in the city’s where rioting has taken hold.
A Wall Street Journal column on Friday slammed the growing trend by the Obama administration and race baiters like Al Sharpton and media outlets such as CNN for seizing moments like the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Freddie Grey in Baltimore to create what writer Heather McDonald called the “Ferguson Effect.”
The consequence of the false narrative they’ve created is the end of the nation’s two decade long drop in crime.
According to the Journal, gun violence has risen 60 percent compared to where it was last year in Baltimore; homicides are up 180 percent in Milwaukee; St. Louis has seen a 39 percent increase in shootings, 43 percent in robberies and a 25 percent growth in homicides . . .
Those numbers are shocking. By declaring police to be the problem in inner cities, authority figures like President Obama have made criminals feel empowered to commit more crimes knowing officers would look to avoid situations that could result in them going to jail just for doing their jobs. (Read more from “The ‘Ferguson Effect’: How Obama’s Racial Pimping Has Endangered ALL Americans” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:27:222016-04-11 11:00:33The ‘Ferguson Effect’: How Obama’s Racial Pimping Has Endangered ALL Americans
Photo Credit: International Business Times As Houston was ravaged by floods starting last weekend and continuing through Saturday night, church members here sprang into action. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention sent 50 volunteers out to deliver food, Houston’s First Baptist Church donated money to disaster relief and Riceville Mount Olive prepared for increased applications to its benevolence fund from which members can request financial aid for rent or bills.
“That’s part of what we believe a church is supposed to do, is assist,” said Deacon Reginald Fields of Riceville Mount Olive. “It’s one of the foundations of Christianity to help those that cannot help themselves.” Speaking slowly from an office inside the church, he continued: “Jesus Christ came and gave his ultimate that we might have and because of him, we feel an obligation to do the same. We realize we can’t do it on the same scale he did, but we’re called to do it.”
In an arena a few miles away, superstar the Rev. Joel Osteen aimed to inspire the thousands who attended Sunday service at Lakewood Church, the nation’s largest. Between rambunctious band performances and colorful light shows, Osteen solemnly preached about the purpose of pain. He urged churchgoers to believe in God’s higher purpose and said God would look out for them.
“We just pray for Your comfort for their families,” he prayed out loud on stage, eyes closed. “We pray that You will help those who have lost and they will recover all.”
During the rain, drivers on Texas highways were forced to abandon their cars to floodwaters. Police pulled bodies from bayous amid mandatory evacuations. Rescue boats capsized in the surging water. Family members were reported missing. (Read more from “Texas Floods 2015: After Devastation, Houston Churches Turn to God for Support” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-01 02:27:102016-04-11 11:00:34Texas Floods 2015: After Devastation, Houston Churches Turn to God for Support
Photo Credit: Fox News Qatar has agreed to temporarily extend travel bans on five senior Taliban leaders released last year from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a State Department official confirmed to Fox News Sunday.
The official said the ban would remain in place until diplomatic talks for a longer-term solution are completed. The restrictions had been due to expire on Monday under a May 2014 exchange for Bergdahl. U.S. officials said Friday the Obama administration was closing in on an agreement with Qatar to extend the restrictions for six months that could be announced this weekend. It was not immediately clear why that agreement had not been finalized.
The U.S. remains in “close contact” with Qatari authorities “to make sure these individuals do not pose a threat to the United States.” As a result of the talks to date, Qatar “has agreed to maintain the current restrictive conditions on these individuals as we continue these discussions,” the official said.
The official said the former detainees are all currently in Qatar and remain subject to the travel ban and extensive monitoring. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly speak to the matter.
Under the terms of the exchange, the five detainees were sent to Qatar, where government officials agreed to monitor their activities and prevent them from traveling out of the country for one year. In return, Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years after walking away from his Army post in Afghanistan, was released to the U.S. military. He recently was charged with desertion. (Read more from “NOT GOING ANYWHERE: Qatar Extends Travel Ban On Ex-Gitmo Inmates” HERE)
